​Seven warm-up matches and the simulation of match situations in the nets are two of Paul Adams’ ploys to ensure that the Western Province senior team hit the ground running in the fourth edition of the Africa T20 Cup tournament from 14 September.

​Adams, head coach of WP, has had discussions with the University of the Western Cape and Maties to play four matches on the 1st and 2nd September and 7th and 8th September against the varsity teams.

When they leave on Monday 10th September for Durban, they plan to play a warm-up match in the morning of 11th September against the KwaZulu-Natal Academy and another warm-up in the afternoon of the 11th against the KwaZulu-Natal (coastal) team. The seventh warm-up match will be against the Academy on 12th September.

The Pool A matches will be played in Pietermaritzburg. The defending champions are KwaZulu-Natal Inland, against whom Western Province will be playing in a potential ‘pool of death’, alongside KwaZulu-Natal Coastal, Easterns and Ghana.

“One must match the skill-sets required to win T20 clashes with players who fit that skills-set,” Adams said.

It is an open secret that Adams, a former South African wrist-spinner, likes to use two spinners in his T20 squads. That duo usually consists of a wrist-spinner and a finger spinner.

“You need variety in your attack with a wrist spinner that can turn it both ways, and an off-spinner, for example, that turns it away from the left-handers, or a left-arm spinner that turns it away from the right-handed batsman. In this way you ensure that batsmen don’t line you up,” said Adams.

“If you have variety in your attack and you take three wickets or more in the power play, statistics show that you win between 70% and 80% of your matches,” Adams said.

Asked why Western Province have only won one Africa Cup T20 game the past three seasons, Adams said they were usually selected to play in August and a lack of preparation to simulate match intensity in the middle was a factor because of the winter rains. “Preparation was a concern,” he said.

The fact that all the teams now play in the Pool stages from 14th to 16th September, makes the playing field more even.